Let's go more upbeat today.
As is so often said--This is the day the Lord has made.
Is it?
We know God created the world, and we know it is His.
Did He make this day for me personally?
Our small group talks about this often. Some people don't see God as "in charge" of our lives. One man doesn't even like for us to pray for people who travel because he says God doesn't have any control over the cars on the highway, etc. Another believes God never changes and we make our own choices which determine what happens to us. Then there are the few who believe God has a hand in our lives. A couple of us believe God speaks to us. Others have never heard Him outside of the Bible.
I can look at so many instances where I can't help but see God's soverignity at work in my life. And I can name many times I've heard His voice.
What do you think? Are we kind of on our own or does God really lead and guide us? Do you hear God speaking to you?
He does. And I feel sorry for those who don't believe he does.
ReplyDeleteGood questions, Barbara. I do believe God speaks to me through the Bible, through the godly lives of other people (by their example and counsel), and through circumstances of life. I even believe God can intervene and prevent accidents on the highway. I pray for that! My 20 year old daughter just left today for Wichita to be a youth ministry intern for the summer. We prayed for her safe travel. How often/much does God intervene to prevent accidents or bad events? Don't know, but I pray that he does! Good discussion and questions.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about how to respond to your post for a couple of days now. Funny, I never second guessed God before until last summer.
ReplyDeleteI didn't live in a bubble oblivious to the bad happening to and around me, I just always could find an explanation. God wants us to live a blessed, healthy, happy, rich life. Just live for Him, plant good seeds, and speak the word with enough faith . . . then all things will work together for good, we'll be healed by His stripes and have the desires of our heart. And if you can't muster enough faith on your own, just find a couple of friends willing to stand and believe with you and poof, it's all yours, a win-win situation.
When things went wrong, as they often did in my life, I could always explain and even understand it. I'd chalk it up to the cost for the way I was living, a lesson to be learned or just a general lack of faith. While this neat and tidy explanation always fit before, it just didn't last summer. In fact, that perspective seems more and more self-absorbed, high and mighty when I read about the loss of a child in the blog, The Big Picture, hear the battle with cancer is ending this week for an online friend (BradyR) from the Colon Club, or today watch a broken Tim Gray on the Dr. Phil Show desperate to keep his 14 year old son off drugs. No, the whole high cost of living, lesson to be learned and lack of faith, just doesn't add up.
I guess I was and still am at times pretty vocal about my problem with God. It freaks some out. My brother saw my anger and worried that I'd turn from God. My aunt hoped I'd find answers in the book "Bad Things Happen to Good People" which basically says God sits back and watches shit happen at random and doesn't intervene. The author (who's son died in an accident) bases this view on his theory if He saved the day for one, he'd do it for all because he's not a respector of persons. Obviously not all people are saved from the bad, therefore it's all a craps shoot with no help from above.
So, what do I think? Are we set afloat in this world completely on our own or is the hand of God active in our life?
Without hesitation, doubts or reservations, I have no problem answering that question. God is now and has always been active in my life. I've heard His voice when reading my bible, walking the neighborhood and talking with a friend. I've felt His presence surround me in good times and bad. At different points in my life, I've desperately cried for Him and there He was to pick me up, dust me off and take me on down the road. He made a promise to me that no matter what, He'd be there. He's kept that promise, even last summer. So yes, I know God's hands aren't tied. He does intervene and answer prayer.
I just don't understand when He doesn't.